Pegg, Frost and Wright face The World’s End

The end of the world could be the beginning of great things for Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, if a new interview in Empire is anything to go by. Having hinted at the project some time back, the boys have confirmed that The World's End has now been green lit.

A "sci-fi comedy" about a group of old mates who decide to re-live a legendary pub crawl from their youth, it will star Pegg and Nick Frost (natch) as chums who stumble across an apocalyptic situation while out on the lash. The ring-leader is a 40 year old chap clinging onto his misspent youth who drags his old mates back to their home town for the unexpectedly eventful drinking session, the destination ironically The World's End pub.

"This is as much about where you grew up as the people you grew up with..." says Wright. "It's also very silly. I would say it's darker, more personal and more silly."

Excited? You should be. This scenario should allow the trio to do what they're best at: irreverent character humour, bromance, Spaced-generation realism, movie references galore and moments of surprising tenderness. Like Shaun of the Dead, it also allows for a steady stream of cameos: as Shaun and co. dashed from house to car to pub in an effort to elude zombies, so The World's End guys will travel from pub to pub, no doubt encountering a few familiar and funny faces along the way. The set up also has the small town feel that helped make Hot Fuzz a worthy follow-up to Shaun.

So what's bringing the end of the world? Not zombies, that's been done... Empire speculate that aliens could be in the frame, given that director Wright references John Christopher and John Wyndham, authors of The Tripods and The Day of the Triffids. Wright uses the term "social science fiction" which has been used to describe disaster movies that explore human behaviour in a crisis. Expect impending doom to sort the sheep from the goats in this comedy - although don't expect the alleged aliens to look anything like Paul.

The World's End begins filming in September with a view to being released next year. Stand by for further news as we find it.